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Oprah Changed My Life – And My Friend's Life, and Soon, Yours Too (The Most Important Book I've Ever Read)

You get a car, and you get a car, and you get a car!

As a young fellow, I was extremely shy to the point where I would force my siblings to call the pizza place so I wouldn’t have to talk to the delivery guy on the phone. I maintained an insular friend group, and generally avoided large gatherings, afraid that I’d be forced into an awkward social situation. Now, let’s fast forward to the early part of my career.

Right out of college, I started by riding up and down the east coast in delivery trucks pitching a beverage to convenience store owners from Maine down to North Carolina. I’d follow the general managers into the drink coolers, explaining competitive differentiation, handling objections, and generally annoying them to place my product on their shelves. I then transitioned into a role at a start-up where I was cold calling 80-120 small businesses all over the United States. “Eff you! Don’t ever call me again!” …I heard that multiple times per day. These experiences are a frightening way to enter the ‘real world,’ especially for someone who loved maintaining relationships, but hated starting them. My 13 year old self wouldn’t touch the experiences of my 22 year old self with a 45 foot pole.

A few years beforehand in college, one of my good friends had been addicted to cigarettes. I mean, addicted. Upon waking up, before every meal, after every meal, in order to study, in order to calm down after exercising. An overall, unhealthy habit. Then, one day, he stopped. No nicotine patches, or waning period.

His immediate life alteration, and my complete change in mentality were the result of one book. This book, helped me in my life in a various number of ways and areas including:

This may sound like some sort of cultish motivational run-down, and for the readers of this book, it can have those types of life-changing, kool-aid effects.

My next series of blog posts are going to be centered around the ideals and principles within this book, and I’ve decided to allow for some suspense. If you want to know the name of the book before Wednesday’s post and more about it before I do a full introduction, tweet at me, Facebook me, or e-mail/Bat Signal me. (I don’t want to competely mess with the people who read this, so I will check these outlets at some point today (5/14/13′) and respond to anyone who reaches out before writing the next post) Either way, it’ll be worth the wait (and for my good friends whom I’ve forced this book down your throats, please don’t give it away) One hint: I found out about it through my parents who found out about it through Oprah’s book club.